Pace Environmental Notes, the weblog of the Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Collection, is a gateway to news, recent books and articles, information resources, and legal research strategies relevant to the fields of environmental, energy, land use, animal law and other related disciplines.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

This Government Accountability Office testimony dated July 9, 2009 (GAO-09-862T) explains that the effects of producing corn-based ethanol on water supply and waterquality are fairly well understood, less is known about the effects of the nextgeneration of biofuel feedstocks.

Water usage in the corn-based ethanol conversion process has been declining and is currently estimated at 3 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol, the amount of water consumed in the conversion of cellulosic feedstocks is less defined and will depend on the process and on technological advancements that improve the efficiency withwhich water is used.